"In my last forty-five years as a life insurance salesman, financial planner, mentor, and teacher, I've witnessed tremendous changes in our profession. The most shocking is that fewer and fewer of us are surviving!  Even less are thriving!  Statistically, it is a proven fact that out of every one hundred sales representatives hired today, only one will be with us in four years! Will you be one of them?"

The above statement was written by I. David Cohen, CLU, ChFC, LUTCF, RFC, of the Financial Services Institute, LTD, in Columbus, Ohio, and appears in the new IARFC (International Association of Registered Financial Consultants) student textbook titled Client Acquisition: A Success Guide for Financial Service Professionals.  This is part of the RFC course materials.

We are proud to announce the Jeremy Nason, RFC, and Will Nason, RFA, of the Insurance Pro Shop were among the faculty members who worked to help create and evaluate the IARFC course materials, under the direction of James L. Lifter, Jr., MBA, RFC, and the IARFC Director of Education.

Jeremy and Will Nason were chosen to help the IARFC with their new course because of the phenomenal success the Insurance Pro Shop is experiencing with their live, two-day training events for Found Money Management and Advanced Fact-Finding Techniques. These two highly acclaimed courses along with the new IARFC course are designed to help Insurance Agents, Financial Advisors, Financial Planners, Attorneys, CPAs and Mortgage Brokers to discover the 'missing ingredients' to surviving and building a thriving practice in the financial services industry.

During the past twenty or so years, many of the associations previously responsible for training new and experienced financial services professionals have lost their focus. Their training consists of a collection of academic courses, with no activity in practice management, marketing and plan writing. They seem more concerned about building their staff of employees, fancy offices, and holding conferences that are very exhibitor and sponsor oriented. These associations no longer focus on member benefits that contribute to the survival and prosperity of their membership.

The IARFC and the Insurance Pro Shop are two of the very few organizations that are developing an educational curriculum that is both academic and practice management oriented. Their programs are based on the process of financial planning, and the enrollees receive the tools for prospecting, closing the engagement, producing plans and implementing those plans with products.

If you want to survive and thrive today in the financial services industry, then perhaps you should consider attending the course offered by the IARFC and the Insurance Pro Shop … Remember, the hockey great, Wayne Gretzky said, "the secret is skating to where the puck is going to be!" If you want to be a leader in your profession, you have to go where the leaders are headed.

By Forrest Wallace Cato RFC, RFMA, CRR, CPC,
Legendary Media Consultant To The Financial Services Industry
www.catomakesyoufamous.com